Shay's Italia Adventures: Florence...The City of Stairs.

Well, let's just say this trip was one of excitement and craziness! I spent this last weekend in Florence with one of my roommates and 3 other people in my program. It started off with Jessica and I missing our train Friday evening. From there we made alternative plans and decided to hop on a longer train to Pisa and then after a couple hour layover, take a bus from Pisa to Florence. We were sad we missed our original train but were glad we were able to catch another!

We got on our train to Pisa and realized we had scored first class tickets. We had our own little suite with seats that folded flat, reading lights, a thermostat, a light dimmer, etc. We were so excited and felt like we were on the Hogwarts Express. Although this route was supposed to get us there 4 hours later than originally planned, we didn't really care at this point because we were riding in style. They even had a guy come by periodically with snacks and drinks (which TOTALLY reminded us of the Hogwarts Express). Haha

We finally arrived in Pisa at midnight and realized the train station is not the safest place in the world. We had about 2 hours to kill and weren't particularly fond of the idea of wandering the streets. Minutes later a very creepy gentleman told us about a train from Pisa to Florence that had just arrived because it was late. He told us we could take it and we got right on. As the train takes off we are still in high spirits, until we realize that our tickets are ONLY good for the bus. We were pretty positive that when they came around to check our tickets we were going to be promptly kicked off in some small town at 1 in the morning. We started to prepare for the worst when we realized that both of our phones were dead. GREAT. We had no way to even look up anyone's numbers or how to call our program director if something were to happen. We also had no way of calling the people we were meeting up with, and had no idea what the name of the hostel we were staying at was because we were planning on meeting up with the other guys right when we got in. We became instantly bummed and realized we were royally screwed if we got kicked off the train. We started putting our valuables in Jessica's money belt when I realized my passport was missing. It was at this moment that I had a mental breakdown, and after riffling through my things, I realized it was probably gone and probably left in our suite from the previous train. I attempted to talk to the conductor (sketchy move considering I don't have a ticket for this train) and he contacted the polizia to file a report. We FINALLY made it to Florence where I talked to the polizia and filled out paperwork for my missing passport.

At this point, we still have no way to get a hold of anyone else we were meeting and have no clue where the hell to go. We asked a policeman where the closest hostel was and just started walking. We had giant backpacks, maps in our hands, and Jessica's blonde hair. WE FIT IN. We found a hostel with Internet and get on Facebook. Thank you Mark Zuckerberg for this brilliant company because it literally saved our asses. We got on Facebook chat and find a girl that is also in our program. We had her call the guys and set a plan to meet at the train station. We walked back and by this point it was 3:30 am. We finally found them and it was a miracle. We owe this girl some vino. We got back to our amazing hostel which was a private room for 6 with a computer and our own bathroom. Not too shabby for my first hostel :)

After about 5 hours of sleep we got up and ate our free breakfast (which was included in the price of our hostel.) I am still pretty bummed about the passport thing but my dear friend Jessica cheers me up and tells me we are still in Firenze, Italia and we need to make the best of it! We hit the ground running and headed for a cappuccino then headed straight to the Duomo. I was slightly nervous after my dad explained how much of a tight fit it can be if it is busy. But we hiked all 467 stairs to the top and it was gorgeous. We were all shocked at the paintings and also the view from the outside. Unreal. From here we went to the Academia to see THE DAVID. Yes I saw the David. We were there for a while just taking in all the amazing art and sculptures all around us. Jessica got yelled at about 10,000 times for continuously taking pictures. We then had lunch at a place with no menu and basically only 4 kinds of pasta. We knew this place was going to be good. We had amazing pasta and wine for lunch and headed to the river. We crossed the bridge and hiked to the top of a hill that was dedicated to Michelangelo and took awesome pictures of the awesome view of Florence. We realized at this point that all we had been doing all day was walking up and down stairs. We then walked to the popular bridge with all the shops on it (scroll down for pics) and took our time taking it all in. We got kebabs for dinner (I am poor) and 3 liters of Heineken for 5 Euro. Later on we went out to a disco called Space (thank you Rob for that suggestion) which was wild.

I absolutely loved Florence and am so glad that we went, despite the events of getting there. You can bet that we have learned many many lessons for future trips. It was nice to talk to people that spoke English and we realized a lot of people there were actually American. I came to appreciate Torino a lot more after going to Florence just because it feels a little more like an authentic and cultural experience. Overall, amazing trip and in the words of Corey Kelmel I am now an international fugitive. I have to head to the US Embassy in Milan this week to figure out the next step. Love you all and glad I made it out of there alive. :)